Indian Antiquary Vol 25

SR No.: 032517
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 366
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 14 MB

Page 139

MAY, 1896.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
133
the mind and malice.86 Coral which scared nervousness and causeless fears was given as a medicine to new-born children. Its changes of colour warned the wearer against the approach of disease.87 The chrysolite draws wisdom and scares folly.88 The Syrians valued the diamond highly as an amulet, for its many medical virtues, and as a safe-guard against madness." In eleventh century Europe, the diamond nerved the arm with force, drove dreams and goblins from the sleeper, baffled poison, healed quarrels, appeased madness, blunted the foeman's steel.90 In Italy, a diamond bound to the left arm scares the Evil Eye, and, together with jacinth, sapphire and carbuncle, is hung round children's necks, as a strong charm.91 The famous diamond of the Rajâ of Mattan is the guardian of Borneo, and the water in which the diamond has been dipped cures disease.92 Till the close of the middle ages, the chrysolite or peridot, also called topazius, was believed to cool boiling water, lust, madness, and piles, and to keep off sudden death.93 Powdered crystal stopped dysentery ; laid on the tongue it weakened fever.84 Aristotle (B. C. 330) said that an emerald worn at the neck or on the finger kept off the falling sickness.95 The Romans held that to look at an emerald healed and cooled the eyes.96 In the eleventh century, Marbodus (A. D. 1070) says that the emerald hung round the neck cured ague and falling sickness, and Psellos notes that ground to powder and mixed with water, the emerald heals leprosy and other diseases.97 The garnet, if hung round the neck or taken internally, refreshed the heart. Heliotrope staunches blood, drives away poison, preserves health, and saves the wearer from abuse. During the Middle Ages, the jacinth drove away the plague and cured colic, jaundice and king's evil.100 According to Galen (A. D. 100) & jasper, hung about the neck, strengthened the stomach. According to Orpheus (A. D. 250) it cured scorpion bite. In the eleventh century the green jasper was sovran for fevers, dropsies and the woes of child-birth. The Greeks called jade nephrite, because it cured kidney (nephros) diseases. In the eleventh century, jet cured dropsy, epilepsy and diseases of the womb, and the magnet quelled dropsy and cooled burns. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, powdered lapis lazuli cured melancholy.? Till recent times the moon-stone cured consumption and epilepsy. In the sixteenth century, the opal was good for the eyes. In India, the pearl is a cure for syncopes and fluxes of blood; seed pearls and dissolved pearls are largely used as medicine by the people of China.10 According to Burton (England, seventeenth century) unions or pearls are very cordial and avail to cheer the heart.11 In
* Fraser's Magazine, May 1856, p. 585; Pettigrew's Superstitions connected with Medicine and Surgery, pp. 50, 51.
7 Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious stones, p. 216 ; Dienlafait's Diamonds and Precious stones, p. 202. # Pettigrew's Superstitions connected with Medicine and Surgery, p. 51. * Streeter's Precious stones and Gems, p. 127.
Marbodus in King's Antique Gems, p. 392 91 Story's Castle of St. Angelo, pp. 219, 220. 92 Dienlafaits Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 85. 95 King's Antique Goms, p. 427. # Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 156. King's Antique Gems, p. 432. * Op. cit. p. 34.
7 Streeter's Precious stones and Gems, p. 150; Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious stones, P. 135 King's Antique Gems, P. 396. The writer in Fraser's Magazine, October 1856, p. 430, notices that in the sixteenth century ground telesine corundum and quartz were taken in draughts. 16 Pettigrew's Superstitions connected with Medicine and Surgery, p. 51.
* Op. cit. pp. 50, 51. 140 Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 141. Camillo (1503 in King's Antique Gems, p. 422) calls it Lyoncurius, Marbodas (A, D, 1070) makes Lyncuriam cure chest complaints and diarrhoea. (Op. cit. p. 406.)
1 Emanuel'e Diamonds and Precione Stones, p. 175. The words of Galen (De Simplis Mod. Fac. B. IX.) in King's Antique Geme, p. 384, are important. A virtue is inherent in the green jasper which benefits the chest and the mouth of the stomach if tied on it. Of this stone I have had ample experience, having made a necklace of such gems and hung it round the neck, descending so low that the stones might touch the mouth of the stomach. They appear to me to be of not less service than if, as king Nechepaos recommends, they had been graven with a serpent with radiated head. This shews (a) the experience of scientific physician that gems exercise healing virtues, and (b) that the object of graving was to add to the virtue of the engraven stone. King's Antique Gems, p. 19.
• Marbodus in King's Antique Gems, p. 894. • Op. cit. p. 397.
• Merbodus in King's Antique Gome, p. 401. • Op. cit. p. 302.
Pettigrew's Superstitions connected with Medicine and Surgery, pp. 50, 51. • Marbodas in King's Antique Gems, p. 505 ; Strauter's Precious stones and Gems, p. 211. . Camillo (1503) in King's Antique Gems, p. 423. 20 Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, pp. 81, 195. Diealafait's Diamonds and Preciowe Stones, p. 194. 11 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 434.